James in his Jeep Getting Java-The Bird Sanctuary Edition

This past May long weekend I spent the better part of the morning at George C. Reifel Bird Sanctuary with good friends Rob, Sarah, and Brianna.

Reifel is a 3 km square area in Delta, British Columbia that is a designated site of Hemispheric Importance by the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (as taken from Wikipedia). On a quiet day it’s a nice slow walk with many species of birds to spy, and on a busy day it’s an attempt not to trip over small children that are in constant danger of being attacked by geese as their parents take photos moments before doom sets in.

I’m going to be flat out honest and just say that I have no idea what bird is what except that the one below enjoyed flying into Brianna’s hand like a scene from Snow White (but a kick ass one where the poison actually makes Snow stronger and she takes over the kingdom by force with her army of dwarves.) When I attempted to lure the bird to my hand, it refused to come near me and I’m pretty sure it even cackled with laughter. Sometimes at night I can still hear the laughter.

This below is a sparrow. (I think.) It was tiny and carried sticks presumably to build a nest–or it was weight training knowing that the other birds would probably tease him eventually because he’s small and he wanted to make sure he could fight back. I may be projecting.

To the left, that’s a blue bird of some sort. On the right is a wood duck perched on a log.

Below is a bird that seems to be saying, “You lookin’ at me?” in a De Niro voice.

And here are the rest of the photos of the bird sanctuary. I do recommend this as a road trip if you are in the Delta area, especially on a nice day. Rob will warn you that some of the berries are alarmed, thus known as “alarm berries,” to make sure that the foliage is not being tampered with. I’m mostly certain he’s joking…

And there’s my best bud, Sarah and me, enjoying our outing at what I think will be an ideal place to survive a zombie apocalypse should it ever happen.

This is the theme song from the day because Rob and I made a joke about this song and the birds flying. Unfortunately, it took me so long to post this that I have completely forgotten what the comment was. It was funny though. Seriously, really funny.